FAO John Techno please

Hi JT,

More bike advice please...

Is it just me or are road bike tyres a bit more slippery than say hybrid tyres in the wet?

Is it a good idea to change tyres for the winter do you think and if so, what would you recommend?
I am now using a Giant Dash as a commuting bike: front tyre the original
Giant tyre (prone to punctures it seems) and rear one is new - a Gatorskin Super Sport Plus.

Also any hints and tips on avoiding/preventing punctures would be good as two punctures in a week
is a bit frustrating (flint and thorns are the culprits) -

Cheers, any info. much appreciated as usual, I will pretty much consider any sensible solution to the ongoing
puncture problems at the moment...

AO.

I got so fed up with constant punctures from my road bike (and having to keep the tyres pumped up to 110 PSI) I got rid of it and got a cyclocross bike (JT recommended me which sort to get).

Hopefully JT will have some more sensible advice for you though.

Rob, I got a Cyclocross bike the other week. I got a Specialized Tricross Sport Disc, it's amazing but I do a lot more walking these days as I'm too scared to cycle anywhere and leave it chained up.

I approve DJ Ohmygod. It's like a road bike, but I can ride mine on river towpaths and over grass and not feel frightened about damaging the bike.

I've got a crappy cheap mountian bike for riding around town (and leaving it locked up). I only use my Cyclocross bike at weekends, and otherwise it never leaves the house. It takes up a lot of space in my living room, but it's worth it.

Googling "Tricross Sport Disc" shows me that yours cost more than twice what mine did. I'm not surprised that you never leave it locked up anywhere.

Thanks for the input, much appreciated.

Um, I was trying to hang on until next summer for a new bike. I thought a proper road bike might be good?

I had the same issue as you a while back:
http://www.wereallneighbours.co.uk/idlechat/message.php?id=46863&page=...

Road bike tyres are indeed more slippery in the wet, because most rely on rubber compound rather than tread for grip - and it doesn't matter how sticky the rubber is, if you get a layer of water (or wet leaf) between the tyre and the ground then it's gonna aquaplane and skid. Hybrid/MTB/wet road tyres have water channels to prevent aquaplaning and grippier tread, just like the tyres they put on F1 cars for wet races.

Cyclocross tyres can't always be used on road bike frames because there isn't enough space between the chain stays and fork legs. Initially, when I Googled Giant Dash, I thought "that's a Giant Defy with a hybrid handlebar and saddle and lower gears," which made me think 'cross tyres wouldn't fit; I checked the specs of Giant's website and found that the maximum tyre width the frame will accept is 25mm - in other words, the wider type of road bike tyre. Fortunately, there's plenty of choice of winter road bike tyres - ask in the bike shop (or search online) for 700x25c. Something like these Schwalbe Marathons ought to do the trick: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/schwalbe-marathon-touring-tyre-gree...

(Winter tyres usually have an added layer to help prevent punctures, too.)

DJ Ohmygod: the Speccy Tricross Sport Disc is a very nice bike. I hope you're going to give it some proper hard use in the woods now we're into cyclocross season and not just use it for commuting!

Thank you JT, I knew you would know!

Ok so not my imagination then... road bike tyres ARE a bit slippy. Fine...

I have those Schwalbe Marathons/similar on my hybrid - I think my Dash would look really interesting with those on!
Right - local bike shop visit in order to see what they have...

Has anyone tried the Slime puncture repair stuff? Tempted but then thought it might be a nightmare in reality to use.

I used to use Slime on my mountain bike. Some people say they can feel it sloshing around in the tyre and that it affects the bike's handling; I never found this to be the case.

Oh, and by the way, kiddies - if any of you do decide to buy yourself some cyclocross tyres for your winter commutes, make sure you buy clinchers rather than tubular tyres. Tubulars offer numerous advantages both for road and cyclocross riding, but gluing them to the wheel rims is a right pain.

I found with Slime tubes I got just as many punctures with the added joy green slime all over the place. I also found the valves to be a bit iffy and the tube itself to be poor quality. I've not tried the sealant in normal tubes. Dr Sludge tubes have worked a lot better than Slime for me although most reviews online describe the opposite.

Yes, yes, yes - that is what was worrying me about the Slime, it would just add to my woes on the puncture front.

I am definitely going to look at better tyres to see if I can fit them under my mudguards, very close fitting those.

JT - tubular tyres that you glue on?! can you elaborate please?

A cyclocross is tempting - I can see what you all mean, I already have 4 bikes though... maybe I can get rid
of my old hybrid and go for cyclocross - is that a good swap?

Tubular tyres - the tyre completely encloses the inner tube, which makes mending punctures awkward (hence they're generally used nowadays only by professional riders who have a back-up car filled with spare wheels with tyres already fitted and a mechanic to swap them over for you). The two main advantages are that they can be used with much lower (suited to cyclocross) or higher pressures (suited to track races and some road races). More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tubular_tyre (ignore what Wikipedia says about sprint rims and wired-on tyres, though, because nobody has called them that since 1930).

Cyclocross bikes - absolutely amazing. Hybrids have certain advantages, but cyclocross (the usual abbreviation is CX, if you can't be bothered typing it in full) are something else entirely: faster, better handling and can go anywhere. They have more race-orientated geometry though, which doesn't suit everyone.

"I already have 4 bikes" - ask any cyclist and they'll tell you that the correct number of bikes is infinity +1.

The geometry of the Tricross Sport is a lot less racey than a lot of cyclocross bikes. It can be annoying when you want to go really fast on a nice flat bit of road. It looks totally cool though which is the important thing.

Hah, yes.

Um, I went to the LBS... always lethal... and the cyclocross bikes do look great...

JT do you have any thoughts on the Giant CX bikes please? Also I saw a lovely beast of a bike: a Giant Anyroad

I guess I am looking for 'racey' CX bike or pretty much my Giant Dash but in a version that can cope with that path up the river to Waterbeach (b-b-b-boneshaking on the Dash) and perhaps could cope with rain, snow and ice?

If they're made by Giant, they're going to be good. All you really need to know about them is Marianne Vos rides a Giant CX bike and she's been World CX Champion every year since 2006 except 2007, when she came second - hers, admittedly, is worth a lot more than an Anyroad, but the fact that she chooses to ride one* is a good indicator that they're decent bikes.

*People think that professional cyclists are given whichever bike their team's bike supplier sponsor provides; however, in the case of a rider like Vos (who has also been World Road Race Champion three times and has won more races than Eddy Merckx had when he was her age), they get whatever they want - it's not uncommon if a top rider prefers the bike made by a company that doesn't supply his or her team for the team to buy the preferred bike and have it painted to look like whatever the sponsor supplies.

Incidentally, if anyone wants to see what CX bikes are really capable of in the hands of an expert, there's a round of the CX World Cup in Milton Keynes on the 29th of November. The rider to cheer for is Helen Wyman, who has been British Champion eight times and European Champion twice - and who really ought to be as well-known as Bradley Wiggins in this country, but isn't. It's worth knowing that due to CX being extremely popular in Belgium, it's considered mandatory to start drinking Leffe at 7am and to eat loads of chips at CX races.

I need to cycle to/from college across a dark park with no public lighting on a cloudy night, but my cheap led light is barely able to distinguish path from grass. Got any recommendations (that are a bit better than my current turd but not like Hope R4 territory)?

Foolscap, I have no idea what they are called but at University Cycles Colin sells LED lights that have a rubbery casing which you can wrap around your handle bars or saddle. Cheap and very effective.

How much do you want to spend on lights?

I think Cateye lights are pretty decent - what about the HL-EL135? Cheap and cheerful?

(I had the Cateye HL-EL340 for a while and then upgraded to the Cateye Volt 300 due to a longer winter commute,
...but that is probably verging ever so slightly towards Hope territory?)

I have one of those rubbery led lights and they are fine in an urban lit road environment, and the flashing mode bounces off signs a long way away, but they are next to useless on a unlit pathway on a cloudy night. I liked the flexibility, easy fixing and simple two function mode which hasn't broken yet, but the lack of rigidity also causes connection issues, sometimes I've had no light at all when pressing the button and had to disassemble and reassemble so not quite so user friendly.

On my watchlist so far are: Blackburn Super Flea, Moon Gem 2.0 - was looking at around £20-25 I have had a couple of Cat Eyes but they ate the batteries, guess the technology has moved on a lot since then though around the range I've looked on Amazon they have mixed reviews.

I have rechargeable AA batteries for my older Cateye. It has a low charge indicator so you know when to recharge.

The Volt 300 is USB rechargeable - I charge it up with my phone charger.

I have a Blackburn Flea Rear light as one of my extra rear lights - lovely little thing - very small but bright, charges using a tiny little USB device.

It has the most amazingly strong clip on the back if anyone is looking for a rear clip on blinky that can survive bumps...

To be honest, I haven't kept up to date with lights over the last few years. Lights are split into two main groups: lights that let other road users see you and let you see where you're going, which is what I had on my mountain bikes, because I used to enjoy riding through the woods at high speed in the dark (which you have to, so the elves don't get you), and lights that are purely to let other road users see you. Now that all my cycling is on road, I only use the latter type; since rubbery Knog-type lights can be had on Ebay for under a quid a time, I use them. The one thing that I have picked up from Cycling Weekly's annual early October new lights review, however, is that all lights costing any more than about a tenner these days are going to be pretty good.

I'd second the Cateye Volt. Quite smart, nice and bright, tough. Not too expensive, but it does have a built in battery and spares are quite expensive, so if it did conk out on the way home, you'd be in some trouble, as you couldn't just switch in some spare AAs you have hanging around.

And, although it is pretty bright for a normal bike light, I'm still not sure I'd want to cycle too far on an unlit path with only that for guidance.

For easy fitting I would recommend the Radian lights in ASDA (but price seems to change week by week). They use alum key (supplied) fitting but can be a pain changing the batteries. But a lot easier to fit than some traditional fitings
Picked up some of the rubbery grip lights just as back up. £3.00 a pair in Halfords. But a lot depends where you are riding. The above are adequate for my commute across Cambridge urban/subarban areas but might not be so good out in the sticks

You can get blue flashing rubbery ones, which are almost certainly illegal but can be fun to have on your handlebars. Some idiot in an Audi pulled out in front of me on the roundabout by Budgens on Perne Road the other night, so I gave him a few flashes of the blue light and saw him shit himself for a second while he decided if I was a copper or not.